Abstract
Stress seems to be meaningful in the context of depression especially in terms of critical life events. Several studies have outlined the connection between this type of stress and depression. However, few studies have been conducted in order to explore the significance of stress in a broader sense, mainly by including daily hassles. In our study three aspects of stress were addressed: (a) critical life events in the last year, (b) dairy hassles and (c) the current stress level in several life domains such as marriage, profession, leisure time, child rearing, psychological and physical well-being, social contacts etc. 21 subjects with low depression scores (BDI 12-19), 18 depressed persons with BDI-scores above 20 and 21 remitted patients (BDI-score below 11), all subjects suffering from current or former major depression, administered questionnaires assessing their stress appraisal in regard to the above mentioned stressors. The results reveal that the depressed patients experienced more stress in all different areas and reported especially higher frequencies of critical life events concerning health problems and social conflicts than remitted or controls. Within daily hassles the depressed scared significantly higher than controls and it was evident that more life domains were contaminated by strains in this group. Our findings are discussed in regard to their clinical implications for therapy.
Bodenmann, Guy